


in which the avengers have a movie night and tony sits out

by genesis_frog



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Movie Night, Gen, Pietro Lives, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Stark Tower, Tony and Reed have some sort of rivalry, slight au: banner is still missing but brucenat didnt happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:56:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4050529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genesis_frog/pseuds/genesis_frog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They just wanted to watch the movie, but no, the power has to keep going out. And only in some rooms! Thanks, Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in which the avengers have a movie night and tony sits out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [izzimb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzimb/gifts).
  * Inspired by [MCU Headcanon Amalgam](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3925567) by [agentofcarter (izzimb)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzimb/pseuds/agentofcarter), [izzimb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzimb/pseuds/izzimb). 



It was Tony's turn to play host for movie night, and he wasn't even _there._

Avengers movie night has been a pretty big deal for a while now, after the original six members had decided to start it as a bonding tactic. That had been back when they warred over everything from seating arrangements to the actual movie. As they got used to each other, they figured out a good system for choosing the movie: if you were the host, you could pick whatever you wanted, as long as it didn't trigger anybody, and was at least a halfway decent movie.

As the Avengers got actual real life friends, they started tagging along too. Sam started attending long before he was a full-fledged member of the team, and Rhodey had been to a smattering of movie nights before he joined, at which point he became the most dedicated movie night attender. By the time Wanda, Pietro, and Vision had joined the crew, Thor became busy on Asgard, and found it difficult to attend. Thankfully, due to the sudden team expansion, there was never too few Avengers in attendance.

Last time, Steve had played host in his tiny apartment. His couches couldn't fit all of the Avengers, so half of the team had to sit on the floor, and Bucky hid in Steve's room the entire time. They all watched Mulan, as it was next on Steve's Disney List.

Today was Tony's turn, it had been planned months in advance, and he's not even here.

When asked, Pepper kindly provides that he was working on something "important" in the lab, alone. FRIDAY confirmed this, in a considerably less kind manner.

"Tony is hosting, and he's not even here?" Sam asked dubiously. "What could be so important that he could miss Thor?" Thor, thankfully, had a day off, so he came along. He was thrilled to see his companions again, and was speaking in a voice that was a little too loud for everyone's ears because of it.

Pepper frowned. "Well. He's working in the lab. And he's not talking to me, so it's pretty important." She gave Sam a halfhearted shrug. Pepper left the room quickly.

Sam turned to the others, who were all settling in. "So who's gonna pick the movie?"

"Steve went last time," Rhodey said. "Can't be him."

"Thor doesn't know any movies," Steve said.

"Everything Pietro likes is in some language that isn't English," Clint said with a scowl. Pietro shrugged with a smile.

"I cannot help it," he said. "English is not my first language."

"If I may," Vision said. "I have been planning ahead, in the event I might host a movie night."

"You don't even have a house," Natasha muttered. Vision raised an eyebrow-- or he would, if he had one.

"I do not need a house," he said. "I have friends to provide me shelter."

"You said you have a movie in mind?" Wanda asked, turning to face Vision, who's sitting on the back of the couch almost directly behind her.

"Yes," he said. "The movie called She's the Man."

Clint burst into laughter, along with Rhodey. Sam looked baffled.

"You want to watched She's the Man?" he asked slowly.

"The title confuses me," Vision said with a shrug. "Female pronouns are not generally applied to people who identify as male, and I would like to know why that is."

Steve shrugged. "Let's watch it," he suggested. "If I'm being honest, I'm a little curious myself."

"Okay," Sam said, resigned. "Let's watch She's the damn Man."

Meanwhile, in Tony's lab, he was Not Happy. He was in a Skype call with Reed Richards, and the two were arguing over the magnetic properties of a new form of metal that Tony had invented. Reed wanted to use the metal for his own work, claiming the metal's oustanding magnetic properties were exactly what he needed, but Tony, who hadn't done full tests on the material yet, claimed that Reed was overestimating the abilities of the metal, and that it would be too dangerous.

The two could not agree on how to go, and were practically yelling at each other over Skype.

"I told you, Richards! I have no idea what this is capable of, it could be disastrous!"

"Exactly! You don't know what it's capable of! It could be fine!"

Tony was about to yell something else at Reed, before taking a deep breath. "Protocol Mike-Oscar-Romeo-Sierra-Echo." His face was eerily calm, if a little focused, and Reed's face mirrored his own, excluding the scowl on his.

"Fine," Reed spat, and ended the call. Tony turned around and cursed, unfortunately to Pepper, who had just entered the room.

She rolled her eyes. "Tony, it's movie night."

"I don't care," he said, moving toward a set of intricate switches.

"If you don't pick a movie, someone else will," she said. He kept moving.

"Last time somebody couldn't choose a movie, Natasha picked a Russian cartoon with subtitles, and only she could understand it," Pepper continued.

Tony was in front of the set of switches. He paused. "FRIDAY, what are they watching?"

"She's the Man, Sir," FRIDAY told him.

"Who- never mind, I don't want to know," Tony muttered. "Pepper, goodbye, I am going to be a grumpy scientist now."

Pepper rolled her eyes, again, before walking back to the communal living room. She figured if she can't beat them, join them.

When she arrived, she'd missed the first couple minutes of the movie, but it was so early on that she hadn't missed anything important. Pietro made a big show of scooting over on the couch, closer to Wanda, and patting the new space that was made for Pepper. She graciously squeezed into the small amount of space.

As the movie went on, many snarky comments were made, particularly from Natasha and Clint, though Steve made a quip every once in a while too, and Pietro laughed like a hyena at every one the three made. Sam got up to make some more popcorn about fifteen minutes in, because Thor and Steve had eaten it all. Sam hadn't even finished the new popcorn when the power went out.

"What just happened?" Steve asked. Rhodey had an annoyed look on his face, and the Avengers would have clearly seen it, had it not been too dark.

"This doesn't happen often in Midgardian homes, does it? I have never observed this behavior before," Thor rumbled.

"No, it's not particularly usual, at least not in perfectly nice weather, and only in certain rooms," Sam deadpanned as he walked back in with a bowl of steaming popcorn. "What is Tony doing, Pepper?"

"I don't know," she said, because really, she didn't know what all this was about, just that Protocol Mike-Oscar-Romeo-Sierra-Echo was in full swing. Just as someone else was opening their mouth to complain, the power came back on, and the movie had been paused in the spot it had been in when the power went out.

"I assumed that putting the movie on pause would be an advisable course of action," FRIDAY explained. Clint gave the AI a grateful round of applause, and played the movie again.

The movie played for about ten minutes before the power went out again. This was met with a chorus of groans, and an "Aww, lights!" from Clint.

"Perhaps we should stand in the other room until there is light again?" Wanda suggested.

Sam opened the door to the kitchen, and found the power was out there, too.

"Isn't Stark Industries into alternative power?" Clint asked.

"Yes," Pepper replied, "that is what we do."

"So then, why is there no power in the headquarters?"

If the lights were on, Pepper would have noted Clint's raised eyebrow and scowl. "Uh," Pepper fumbled for an answer, "well-" and the lights came back on.

Clint and Pietro cheered. Vision seemed delighted at the fact he had, well, regained his vision. Thor let out a booming laugh. FRIDAY, once again, resumed the movie. This time, only five minutes had passed when the lights went out again, and Rhodey yelled in frustration. "I swear I am going to march down to his lab myself and get an explanation!!"

Steve grumbled something unintelligible. The power came back on, but FRIDAY didn't resume the movie. "I'm gonna go with you," he called out to Rhodey, who sent the super soldier back a thumbs up. The two, well, marched down to the labs, leaving a rather frazzled Pepper with the Avengers.

"Miss Potts," Vision said. "Do you know why the power is going out, and Mr Stark won't fix it?"

"It's because he's causing the power outages," she whispered back to him. "It's a thing he does, with Reed Richards. When they get mad they use a complicated secret code similar to Morse code to yell at each other without having to actually yell."

"Why do they not simply speak in person?" Vision asked, equally quiet.

"Who knows? They're men, and geniuses, both of which have reputations for not being very straightforward."

"Aaah," Vision said, at a normal volume now, in acknowledgement of her.

After a while of waiting, a lot of complaining from Clint and Pietro to restart the movie, and Wanda falling asleep, Steve and Rhodey came back.

"Well?" Natasha asked. "Will he fix it?"

"He was fiddling with switches, and he looked really focused, so I'm going to assume yes?" Steve's statement curled up into a question, and he looked to Rhodey for confirmation, who nodded.

"Focused, huh," Sam muttered. He yawned.

Pepper mumbled to herself "that's his angry face", and then, louder, "FRIDAY, please resume the movie again."

"Certainly," FRIDAY answered, and She's the Man went on.

The power flickered several more times throughout the night, and did not stop until 2 AM, by which point everyone was asleep except for Tony himself, who was furiously cussing Reed Richards out via Tower Morse code. Thankfully, it wasn't one-sided, and Reed was cussing Tony out right back. They didn't stop until Reed was dragged to bed by his team, and Tony figured he won their little battle, for once. He just dreaded tomorrow, when Reed would harass him, again.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a comment I left on MCU headcanon amalgam! i saw it again and couldnt resist writing this haha
> 
> this is so ridiculous. how did i even write this.
> 
> largely unedited so please forgive me if theres an error of any sort, and if you catch any typos tell me!


End file.
